I say this all the time, but if there’s one constant of the military, it’s breakups, infidelity, and the infamous “Dear John” letters that countless Marines have fallen victim to. That girl back home that you swore wasn’t like the other girls can potentially rip your heart out and destroy your soul from thousands of miles across the globe. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that some women just can’t hack it as a military spouse or girlfriend. Temptations are a bitch, and there is no greater temptation than a boyfriend on the other side of the planet. Dignity is not a virtue that everyone possesses, and many women don’t take to heart the honorable idea of their man on the other side of the globe.

^This is fake

Fidelity is a rough issue, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Marines don’t cheat on their wives. For the honest man however, a breakup or finding out your girlfriend is cheating on you can be mentally devastating while on deployment. Deployments are rough as it is, you cling to the very whim of thought of the things you have at home–people included. Women hold a special kind of power over Marines while they’re overseas, mental health can reside solely on the strength of that bond, if the Marine has nothing else. I think it would do everyone a bit of good to just hold off on making brash decisions until the Marine has at the very least returned home from deployment.

As the old saying goes though, if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one. You can chalk up bad relationships to one of the many reasons being in the military can be an awful experience. Finding yourself holding a Dear John letter is definitely not somewhere you want to end up.

In other news, I’ll be going on vacation to Oregon this week. There won’t be regular comic updates on Friday or next week. I’ll either post previously published Marine Corps Times comics or do some of my good ol’ Terminal Lance sketchbook entries while I’m away. If you’re really desperate for some Max, you can follow me on Twitter @tlcplmax or keep up with my Tumblr.

Something else I wanted to mention: There seems to be a lot of strange misinformation floating around about me lately. If you want to know more about me, feel free to click on the “About” section of Terminal Lance at the top of the screen. It’s all pretty straightforward, the information has been there since 2010. In a nutshell, I was an 0351, I went to Iraq twice with 3/3, did some ComCam stuff the 2nd time. Any more or less than that is bullshit. My name has been on everything I’ve published since day one, I don’t try to hide from anything.

Lastly, if you missed it, check out my newest webcomic venture “Into the Mangrove,” which updates every Wednesday with new comics. I don’t do the artwork regularly, another talented artist by the name of Brad Hock does that. I do, however, co-write the comic; so if you like Terminal Lance, you’ll probably appreciate the humor. Speaking of which, my first personally drawn Into the Mangrove comic will be debuting on Wednesday, so check it out.

I'm just going to say what everyone else already knows: being a dog owner is so much harder than having kids.